HOUSTON -- Teddy Bear Paradise, a 57-year-old former Santa Cruz woman, has been indicted in Texas for allegedly threatening to kill President Barack Obama.

Paradise, also known as Denise O'Neal, mailed a handwritten, 16-page letter to Obama, said U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson.

"I am coming to Washington D.C. to murder you," Paradise wrote in the Nov. 28 letter.

"I am permanently physically and mentally disabled," she wrote. "All I wanted to do was rent a home for myself."

Paradise described herself as a lesbian and said she'd been harassed by workers at jails, prisons and psychiatric hospitals.

Teddy Bear Paradise
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Because of the threat to the president, a federal grand jury indicted Paradise on Dec. 23 in Texas. She was arrested on Dec. 26 in Houston and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson.

Johnson ordered her held without bond pending further criminal proceedings. If convicted, Paradise faces "up to five years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine," said federal public affairs officer Angela Dodge.

A message left Wednesday evening with Paradise's attorney, federal public defender Marjorie Meyers, was not returned.

It was not Paradise's first brush with the law.

In 2008, Paradise was in Hawaii when she mailed a letter that threatened to kill then-President George W. Bush. She pleaded guilty in that case.

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In January 2009, federal authorities in North Carolina alleged that she threatened to kill her probation officer. Paradise later pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to federal court documents.

It was not clear how Paradise came to California, but she was arrested in Santa Cruz in April 2012 for an outstanding federal warrant.

Paradise also was convicted in federal court in San Jose in 2005 for mailing threatening letters.